Case report of falciform ligament abscess—The importance of early diagnosis

Ligaments are peritoneal duplications that contain venous and lymphatic vessels that can potentially be pathways for the spread of infection. Primary inflammation of one of the peritoneal ligaments is very rare. Abscess of the falciform ligament (FLA) is a rare pathological substrate whose pathophysiology is still unknown or poorly understood, but most often occurs as a consequence of a local inflammatory process such as acute cholangitis, cholecystitis, pancreatitis or pylephlebitis. The diagnosis of the primary site of inflammation as well as FLA is established by radiological methods—ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR), while the therapy is most often combined—conservative and surgical, but interventional radiology methods can also be used. In this report, we present a 67-year-old patient with the falciform ligament abscess that developed during epizode of acute cholecystitis with left portal vein thrombosis, which was diagnosed by US and CT and effectively managed with antibiotic treatment. FLA is a severe inflammatory condition that requires prompt diagnosis and aggressive antibiotic therapy to avoid surgical treatment.